1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved toilet training aid having a platform and a set of safety rails designed to give small children, especially male children, the height they need to stand in front of the toilet to urinate, and provides both male and female children with access to the toilet when taking a seated position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Toilet training aids for young children have been the subject of earlier patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,064, issued to Parr, discloses a step stool construction with a U-shaped opening which fits around the base of a toilet. While the apparatus by Parr provides the child with additional height, it fails to provide for the safety of the child while standing on the platform or sitting on the toilet. While U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,404, issued to Levins, shows a toilet training aid comprising multiple steps and two handrails, the plurality of steps requires that the horizontal steps be too narrow to stand comfortably upon, and is configured so that if the male child stands on the top step in order to be close to the toilet, the child is too high off the toilet to urinate safely, and so that if the male child stands on the lowest step for safety""s sake, the child is too far from the toilet to urinate without mishap.
Other step constructions are exemplified in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 307,629, issued to Tkahashi et al.; U.S. Des. Pat. No. 310,869, issued to Sedlack; U.S. Pat. No. 2,120,481, issued to Bentz; U.S. Pat. No. 2,607,926, issued to De Puy; U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,882, issued to Blumenshine; U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,697, issued to Dubay et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,072, issued to Lipski; U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,055, issued to Botes; U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,672, issued to Gebhard et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,295, issued to Ford, and U.S. Pat. No. U.S. 6,349,423, issued to Kelleher.
While most of the aforementioned toilet aids allow a young child to sit safely on a toilet, none of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a toilet training aid solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The present invention is a toilet training aid for assisting a young child to use an adult-sized toilet during toilet training.
The training aid includes a lightweight platform and handrail combination, which provides a toddler the added height he or she needs to confidently use an adult toilet. The platform is removable, easily stored, and has a U-shaped cutout which allows the platform to fit around the base of the toilet. The adjustable height handrails project up from the platform on either side of the platform and are removable.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a toilet training aid which will give young toddlers the added height and safety they need in using a standard toilet.
It is another object of the invention to provide a toilet training aid having adjustable height handrails mounted on a platform for accommodating children of different heights.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a toilet training aid having a lightweight platform so that a small child may maneuver the platform up to a toilet to provide the added height necessary to use the toilet.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is lightweight, inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.